Mother Of Shooting Victim Says Punishment Not Enough

HAMPTON — Florence Pearson is a gracious host. To accommodate the many guests who have visited her home this week, she has set out six metal folding chairs in the living room.

They come, they sit and they mourn the death of her son, Erik Lynward Winslow - 27 years old, suddenly gone, shot to death.

On Tuesday, glancing up on the mantle at a framed photo of a beaming Erik in his high school graduation gown, Pearson found herself wrestling with her Christian faith as the subject turned to forgiving those who have sinned, of turning the other cheek.

The 13-year-old Newport News boy that police have charged with murder, she says, shaking her head as if to apologize for the words to follow, should be sentenced to death. "I feel that child should pay the price. He should serve the price for the crime. He took somebody who was good. It wasn't like my son was bothering anybody," she said. "I'm definitely starting to believe in capital punishment, as Christian as I am. We need to set an example."

The 13-year-old suspect has been charged with murder, attempted robbery and related gun charges, according to police. Under Virginia law, he cannot be tried as an adult. If convicted, the maximum sentence he could receive would be to remain in juvenile detention until he turns 21.

That kind of punishment, Pearson says, comes nowhere close to fitting the crime.

After a six-year stint in the Army, Winslow was committed to working hard and had been doing factory work for a Newport News temporary agency in recent weeks, his mother said. "My son was a good young man. He was a fabulous young man," Pearson said. "This makes me very frustrated. It makes me wonder what kind of home this suspect comes from. I have a 15-year-old son. He's in bed at 10. We have rules."

Since making the arrest of the boy late Saturday, police have said little except that they continue to search for other possible suspects. The motive, the name of the suspect, the kind of gun and where the victim was shot have been kept under wraps. Police say a preliminary investigation puts the death at between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m.

Residents of Autumn Lakes Apartments in Denbigh, where both the victim and the accused resided in nearby buildings, knew the young suspect by his nickname May-May.

A man who answered the door Monday where May-May lives said the boy's mother was on her way to see an attorney. Contacted later, the mother refused to comment.

Dominique Wallace, a 19-year-old resident of the apartment complex, said police on Sunday had swarmed over the area in search of answers. At one point, he said, tucking his hands into his pants and shrugging, they threatened to arrest him and charge him with murder. "I told them I didn't even know nothing," said Wallace, who said he saw May-May at a nearby party Friday night and later in the evening scolded the youngster for being out too late.

Winslow's body was discovered Saturday morning in Potter's Field Park near the intersection of Beechmont Drive and Warwick Boulevard.

Miles away on a quiet street in Hampton, the Pearson household has received dozens of friends and neighbors offering their condolences. And through it all, Pearson, her two teen-age children and her husband keep a stiff upper lip.

But when the guests depart, and the family faces another quiet night since the shooting, Pearson says they can bear the loss no longer and they begin to weep. "I miss his smile. I miss his generosity," Pearson said, glancing up at the mantle once more. "I miss his love and I miss the love he gave his brother and sister. He was my rock."